Side Effects
by SoCalKat
Summary: While Ziva recovers from a terrible car crash, she learns she has lost her memory of the last four years.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own NCIS or any of its characters. Obviously, if I did, I wouldn't be writing a fanfic.**

Side Effects

The first thing she noticed was the lights. Bright, intimidating lights pounded on her eyes, and she shut them again. Her long black hair splayed out uncomfortably on the stiff pillow. She wore a tacky striped hospital gown, tied on the side.

A doctor turned and noticed her consciousness. Ziva David moaned as the doctor poked and prodded her many bruises. A black cast covered her leg, up to the knee, and her right arm was in a sling.

"Wh- What happened?" She managed, looking confusedly at the doctor. She didn't remember any of this.

The doctor- Dr. Lang, her nametag said- glanced down at her clipboard before answering. "You're at the hospital, Ziva. You wrecked your Minivan."

Ziva was confused. "Minivan? What minivan? I don't own a minivan."

It was the doctor's turn to look confused. "Well, of course you do. You were driving home from work with your husband, and you swerved to avoid a deer in the road, and hit a tree. Fortunately, your husband suffered only minor scrapes and b-"

Ziva interrupted her. "I am not married!" She held up her left hand to show the doctor, but a gold wedding ring rendered her speechless.

The doctor looked flustered. "Ziva? What year is it?"

"2007." She answered confidently.

The doctor shook her head slowly. "And your last name is…"

"David!" Ziva answered with a little more stubbornness.

The doctor frowned slightly. "Ziva, I suspect the crash took your memory. The condition's called amnesia, and I'm not sure if it's permanent. The year is 2011, and your name is Ziva DiNozzo."

Ziva gasped.

Just at that moment, Tony walked in. Flashing a smile at the doctor, he took the seat next to Ziva's bed. "Looks like you're finally awake. You've been sleeping for, what, 28 hours?" A bandage was wrapped around his wrist, and he looked a little… off. But he was still Tony. And apparently, he was her husband.

Dr. Lang shot Tony a sympathetic glance. "Tony, Ziva's got a little amnesia. Maybe you could fill her in on a few details?"

Tony grinned and nodded, a strand of his now-longish brown hair falling in his face. "So, Zi, what dontcha remember? The place of the accident? The time…"

Another sympathetic glance. Ziva still hadn't uttered a word to her _husband_.

Dr. Lang cleared her throat. "Unfortunately, Tony, Ziva's amnesia goes a bit further back than that. She doesn't remember the last four years."

Tony looked obviously taken aback for a moment. "You don't remember… anything. You're still Ziva David, we still work with Gibbs, Vance is still director…?"

Ziva gasped. Tony's tone implied that none of those things were still current.

"What happened?!"

Tony took a deep breath, and those green eyes turned nostalgic. "Gibbs, Vance, and Ducky were flying commercial airline to California, for some business or something. The plane was bombed, Ziva. No survivors."

Ziva was on the verge of tears. "Who would do that?"

Tony's eyes turned sympathetic and reluctant, but he knew he had to answer the question.

"Your father."

**Please review? My first NCIS fanfic. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Mmm… It's barely been up for an hour or so, so there are obviously no reviews. But, oh well. I'm posting chapter 2 anyway.**

Ziva was still in shock. "Gibbs, Vance, Ducky… They're all dead? What happened to Abby, and McGee, and…"

Tony was silent for a moment. "Abby and McGee both resigned. Abby was… more than devastated, she was a wreck. McGee comforted her for a while, now they're dating. I'm the new director of NCIS, by the way."

Ziva nodded. "And I…?"

"You are the leader of your own team, one made up of three rather… new agents. And…" Tony's voice trailed off. He really didn't want to tell her. He sighed, took a deep breath, and stared at the floor. "Your father's dead, Ziva. McGee found him and shot him."

Ziva was practically hyperventilating.

"And us? What about us?" She was tentative to ask the questions, especially those that needed answers the most. "Where do we live? Alone? Why the _hell_ do we have a minivan?!"

Tony hesitated. "We were married on May 6th, 2008. We have three daughters, one of them is adopted. Aiza is nine, adopted from Pakistan. Arietta and Bianca are twins, three years old. We live in a house near your old apartment."

Ziva slowly shook her head. Tony excused himself and ducked out of the room. She took a moment to stare in wonder and devastation at the ceiling. Almost all of those she cared about were dead. She had no family left, her team was broken up…

Tony returned with two little girls. Dark brown hair fell in delicate ringlets, framing their identical faces. Arietta, on the left, wore a light blue sundress. Bianca wore the same, but in green.

From behind Tony, an older girl approached Ziva's bedside. Aiza, she assumed. The girl looked a lot like Ziva when she was young, but they had no biological connections.

Aiza was silent, just looking down at her other. Nobody said a word, and the twins clutched Tony's hand. Ziva just looked up at him, pain, anguish, and bewilderment obvious in her expression. In one day, she had lost it all.

Bianca blinked, and whispered the word "_Mommy_." Tears once again welled in her eyes, and she looked back at Tony, silently begging him to save her from all of this. He quietly herded the girls back into the waiting room.

Ziva wanted to scream. This couldn't be true. This was all a trick. Everything. As soon as she was ready again, she would go back to work, under director Vance and special agent Gibbs. Tony would be just a colleague, and nothing will be different.

Except now it was.

She heard bits and pieces of Tony explaining her condition to the girls, and a single tear slid down her cheek. She ripped out the IV with her good hand, and swung her legs to the side of the bed. Grabbing some nearby crutches, she made her way slowly to the waiting area, wincing at the pain of her sprained wrist.

Several nurses dropped their files and approached her, but Ziva shrugged them off.

Arietta looked up, and called "Mommy!" Ziva heart shattered. She slowly moved closer, meeting Tony's concerned gaze for a moment. She brushed a lock of hair from Arietta's face, but said nothing.

She had a feeling these unfamiliar girls were used to silence.

**Please Review and I might even go for three straight chapters today! I know it's short, please don't complain.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Meh. One measly review. I'm giving up after this chapter, next one'll be tomorrow.**

Ziva had finally succumbed, and nurses had taken her back to the little white room. Tony had taken the kids home, and they had been informed that she would be allowed to leave tomorrow morning, if all went well. Ziva wasn't particularly longing to go "home," to a place that didn't even remember.

Bianca and Arietta had not gone quietly crying for their mother the entire way. Ziva had become an emotional wreck over the course of a single day. Before now, she could not remember ever crying. Not once. Now she constantly had tears pricking at her eyes.

The biggest bombshell was her marriage. So, Tony wasn't a womanizer anymore (she hoped.) She couldn't remember ever having such strong feelings for him, but now… Now she… she loved him. His green eyes could see right through her.

Abby and McGee had shown up to visit. Abby was wearing her usual garb, a plaid miniskirt and black, skull-embroidered tank top with knee-high lace-up boots. McGee seemed like a nerd standing next to her.

They had tried to joke, tried to have fun with her, and she regretted the uncomfortable silence that fell between them. They were all friends, right?

The nurses had given her something to knock her out, which she was grateful for. She needed to sleep, to get away from all this craziness. She'd fallen asleep quickly, dreading the morning, when she would go home.

The morning came quickly. The nurses had removed the IV, left some fresh clothes next to the bed, and gotten everything ready for her to leave. When her eyes blinked open, Tony was sitting in the chair beside her, watching her.

Ziva moaned, but sat up and looked at her husband. "Where was our honeymoon?" she asked.

Tony was bewildered for a moment. "What? Oh, the Cayman Islands."

Ziva nodded, content. She wanted to know as much as she could of her recent past. She wanted to be normal, appear normal to those around her. And especially her kids.

Tony had not brought Arietta, Aiza, or Bianca this time. No, today, he was on his way to work as director of NCIS. To double his workload, he was also standing in for Ziva as he team's leader while she was away, until the cast on her leg came off.

As for right now, she was in a wheelchair. Crutches didn't work for her sprained wrist, but she resented having to be wheeled around.

When Tony dropped her off at a quaint little suburban home, she felt immediately out of place. Aiza was away at school, but the twins were too young. They were sleeping when Tony wheeled her inside, and he assured her they would stay that way for a while.

They were nearly toilet-trained, he told her, and were speaking almost fluently. They loved to play games, and never left each other's side. Ziva could hardly tell them apart, she went off the different colors of their clothes, which Tony had to point out to her.

Ziva wheeled around the house most of the day, getting used to the place. Bianca and Arietta played outside mostly, but spent a good deal of time sleeping. She fixed sandwiches for them all to eat at lunch, and she felt almost like a normal mom.

This worried her.

By the time Tony and Aiza walked through the door, Ziva was dozing near the couch, where the twins were practically draped over each other, snoring.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for the reviews, guys. Definitely not giving up on this story yet.**

It had been several weeks since Ziva had come home from the hospital. Today was the day she was supposed to go back to work, and Ziva was looking forward to seeing the bullpen again, and meeting her new team.

Tony, Ziva, and the kids loaded into the car, and Tony drove to school, dropping Aiza off in front, and checking the twins into day-care. Their next stop was the big, all-too-familiar building where they both worked. The elevator came to a stop, and Tony encouraged her toward the bullpen, where three agents sat at their computers.

By habit, she very nearly took her old desk, but lurched toward the empty one. The agents; Taylor, Bernard, and Bonn; nodded toward her with a polite "Hey, boss." Ziva nodded back, placed her coffee on her desk, and gingerly climbed the stairs toward the director's office.

Tony's secretary nodded her in with a surprised expression. Tony was sitting at his desk, staring down at some paperwork. Ziva cleared her throat, and he looked up."Agent DiNozzo," he said, with an amused grin.

Ziva smiled slightly. "I need you to fill me in on the details. Do I have a case?"

Tony nodded, handing her a file. Ziva read it quickly. Easy enough, dead marine, lots of evidence…

"So I have a case. One more thing. What are the names of our forensic scientist and Autopsy… person…?"

Tony grinned. "Kayla Davis, Forensic scientist. And Jimmie Palmer, autopsy. Of course, that one you probably already knew…"

Ziva nodded her thanks, and headed back down to the bullpen.

She sat down at her desk, and all was quiet for a few moments. "Any new leads on the Soate case?" she asked. This earned blank stares from agents Bernard and Bonn, but Michael Taylor nodded and stood up. "Palmer found a few strange fibers on the body. Kayla identified them as from the trunk of a 2007 Aston Martin v12 Vantage. Only one person Soate had any contact with that owned a car like that was his…"

"Father," Mariah Bonn spoke up.

Ziva nodded. "Bring him in, then"

It was Ashlynn Bernard's turn to speak up. "He's already in Interrogation." She murmured quietly.

"Then what are we waiting for?

Today had been a good day. Ziva had interrogated the victim's father, gotten a confession, arrested him, and picked the girls up from school on time. Halfway through the drive home, a grin appeared on Tony's face. "What?"

Her husband stifled a laugh. "Rule twelve. It was the end of everyone on the team."

Ziva smiled as well. "One more reason we had to do whatever Gibbs told us to. He was all-knowing."

Tony nodded, and after a second, looked back over. "Did you hear about McAbby, Ziva?" She shot him a puzzled look, and shook her head. "They've got a little one on the way," Ziva grinned "Well good for them!"

They pulled into their driveway, and unstrapped the girls. Ziva went inside to make them a snack, clicking on the TV.

"In other news, ex-NCIS agent Timothy McGee was shot today. Around 10:30 AM, he and his girlfriend were driving from the grocery store, and were caught in the line of fire of two gangs, shooting it out in the street. He is in critical condition, but his girlfriend is expected to make a full recovery."


End file.
